Expert: LizaL - 9/30/2005

Question
Hey,

I am trying to have an image file and chop it up into pieces like a jigzaw puzzle. then reshow the image piece by piece.

when all is done this is what I want.
start the image as a blank square with black borders. Then show the image with only one small piece showing of the original file. Then show two pieces and then three......until the full image is shown

I thought I could find an overlay or outline of a small puzzle and go from there.

I know how to gradually show the pieces. The problem is finding a way to put my original image into a jigsaw puzzle format.

Do you have any ideas that can help?

Answer
I think there are a lot of ways to go about this, one being to first draw your puzzle overlay in a vector-based drawing program like Illustrator or Freehand. With Illustrator you have a distinct advantage of being able to drag and drop the puzzle pieces, once you've drawn and selected them, one by one into an empty Photoshop document.

Then you can arrange them (in Photoshop), and use the Bevel and Emboss effects (Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss -- and also the Drop Shadow layer effect from the same submenu) -- making sure you keep each piece on its own layer. To incorporate your picture, put it on a layer below the pieces, then select each piece and use the Layer > New > Layer Via Cut commands to cut the image into the puzzle piece shape.

I suggest putting each piece on its own layer in Photoshop because   a) you want to do the effect of showing one piece at a time, which you can achieve in ImageReady once you've got the puzzle set up in Photoshop    and   b) if you have to edit any one piece, it'll be separate from the rest.

However -- if you choose to draw the pieces in Photoshop, I'd still use a pre-drawn grid to go by. Put the grid on the bottom layer, and use the pen tool on a new layer above to trace the pieces. Use the open path option, and keep the pieces on separate layers.

Once you have the pieces set up, you can add your actual image. Drag its layer below the puzzle pieces. It will be tedious, but you could click on any given puzzle shape, go to the Paths palette, make the path into a selection, make a new layer as explained above (Layer > New > Layer Via Cut) and then use the Layer > Layer Style > Bevel and Emboss and Drop Shadow options to give the piece some depth.

What I did in this little example movie below was similar, although I didn't use a pre-drawn puzzle grid. I put my image on a layer, used the pen tool to draw a puzzle shape right on top of the layer, then I used the Paths palette to make that shape into a selection. Once it was selected, I used Layer > New > Layer Via Cut to put the selection on its own layer. At that point I was free to make any kind of effect, like Bevel and Emboss, and Drop Shadow.

The next step would be to repeat the process for the other pieces.

Here's the movie:
http://little-works.com/all_experts/puzzle.mov



OR -- you could download a preset action, or a plug-in. Here's an action you can download -- you can substitute the pictures the guy used with pictures of your own:
http://www.liknes.no/Photoshop/specialfx3.htm

Ha! Well, that might wind up to be just as tedious. But if you're not going to make a huge puzzle, the first way that I explained might be best.

Hope this helps!